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If Jake Gardiner has any hockey nightmares this summer, they will be rooted in overtime of Game 7.

The Maple Leafs defenceman gave his account of the winning goal by the Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron at 6:05 of the extra period in Boston’s 5-4 victory.

And no, Gardiner was not watching from the bench, though he might have wished he could have been.

“There was a shot from the point and I was tying up (Tyler) Seguin in front,” Gardiner said. “Loose puck, so I tried to clear it and it ended up going right on (Bergeron’s) tape. Just an unlucky bounce. I did not see him coming back door like that. Just trying to clear it away as quick as I could.”

Seguin assisted on the goal for his only point of the series as Bergeron slipped the puck into an open net past James Reimer.

“Tyler, who has been criticized a lot in this series, if you watched the winning goal,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said, “did one heck of a job in front of that net before (Bergeron) puts it in.”

— Terry Koshan

A TOP-FIVE LOW FOR REIMER

BOSTON — In the aftermath of the collapse, Leafs goalie James Reimer certainly looked like a young player who didn’t know what had hit him.

He wasn’t alone in the gloom of the cramped visitors dressing room on Monday night, however, like his teammates looking for answers to how a 4-1 lead and sure progression to the next round could disappear.

“It’s definitely in the top-five lows in your life,” Reimer said when trying to put into words the devastation. “There’s no way to describe it. Just an empty feeling, really. It’s over and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

While Reimer will get a passing grade for his playoff debut — particularly for his stellar efforts in Games 5 and 6 with elimination on the line — he is still a work in progress, clearly, but one with an upside.

Like the rest of the eyewitnesses to the stunning Bruins comeback, Reimer admitted the shock factor was tough to put aside.

“When you’re up 4-1, you want to close the game out,” said Reimer, who had to face 17 shots in the third period and 35 on the night. “So when you’re coming in and you’re at 4-4, there’s a little bit of shock. But at the same time, we’re saying to ourselves that we would have taken overtime coming in this morning.

“Especially as a goalie, you want to step up and try to make one more save in that situation.”

— Rob Longley

NO ANSWER FOR LUCIC

BOSTON — Summoning his inner-Cam Neely, Milan Lucic all but picked up the Boston Bruins late in the third period Monday night and carried them, pushed them and willed them to a victory of the Maple Leafs.

It was that consuming, leaving the Leafs without an answer or an ability to hold on to a three-goal lead in a playoff series they appeared to have won.

Lucic, the enormous winger who had a less-than-ordinary season, made up for it with his first-round dominance of the Leafs, pounding them physically, scoring nine points, and ending up a plus-9 in the process.

Lucic called the game “pretty crazy.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a game that was anything like that.”

Lucic scored with 1:22 to play, after setting up a Nathan Horton goal earlier in the period. He was then prominent on Patrice Bergeron’s tying goal with 51 seconds left.

While Bergeron scored the equalizer and the winning goal in overtime to end a series-long drought — a huge pickup for the Bruins — the momentum all began with Lucic’s ownership of the puck down low, his overwhelming physical play.

And he had a little help from the game officials, who basically put their whistles away for most of the night,

LEAFS: 'I didn't see him,' Gardiner says

Gardiner recalls Bruins’ OT winner

If Jake Gardiner has any hockey nightmares this summer, they will be rooted in overtime of Game 7.

The Maple Leafs defenceman gave his account of the winning goal by the Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron at 6:05 of the extra period in Boston’s 5-4 victory.

And no, Gardiner was not watching from the bench, though he might have wished he could have been.

“There was a shot from the point and I was tying up (Tyler) Seguin in front,” Gardiner said. “Loose puck, so I tried to clear it and it ended up going right on (Bergeron’s) tape. Just an unlucky bounce. I did not see him coming back door like that. Just trying to clear it away as quick as I could.”

Seguin assisted on the goal for his only point of the series as Bergeron slipped the puck into an open net past James Reimer.

“Tyler, who has been criticized a lot in this series, if you watched the winning goal,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said, “did one heck of a job in front of that net before (Bergeron) puts